Dover-based Backpacks for Kids a class act for less fortunate

Since 2001, the foundation — made up of students from Dover and Sherborn — has been organizing, fundraising, purchasing, assembling and distributing.

By Maureen Sullivan, msullivan@wickedlocal.com

Back to school may not be the most pleasant thought crossing young minds, but for several hundred children and their parents, it will be a little less worrisome.

Thanks to the Dover-based nonprofit Backpacks for Kids Foundation, more than 600 brand-new backpacks, each filled with basic school supplies, will be making their way to less fortunate children in the area.

Since 2001, the foundation — made up of students from Dover and Sherborn — has been organizing, fundraising, purchasing, assembling and distributing. As foundation members “age out” (graduate and go to college), newer members take their place.

Meredith Allen and her twin brother, Charlie, have been involved with the foundation for several years; their older sister, Elizabeth, helped run the program while a student at Dover-Sherborn (she is now a senior at Colby College).

The Allens, along with Bailey Laidman, now direct the foundation; the Allens and Laidman are sophomores at Dover-Sherborn High School. Laidman’s older sister, Devon, ran the program last year with Sarah Bartholomae, both of whom are now in college.

“We get school supplies to kids who need them,” said Dana Rice, a freshman at Dover-Sherborn who joined the foundation just a couple of weeks before.

Supplies are either purchased (with donations received from an annual letter appeal) or received from companies staging “in kind” drives. However the method, the foundation usually collects enough supplies to assemble and distribute an average of 600 backpacks each year (about 6,000 backpacks since the foundation began, according to mom Laurie Allen). These backpacks are sent to local agencies, including the Natick Service Council, the housing authorities in Needham and Wellesley, Boston Health Care for the Homeless and Catholic Charities.

“The Backpack for Kids Program in Dover helps us every year. They are doing 50 for us this year,” wrote Kathie Fair Chandley of the Natick Service Council in an email.

These agencies send their requests to the foundation listing the gender, age and anything specific, such as the kind of backpack desired.

“We’ve received requests for Disney Princesses, Barbie, ‘Cars’, ‘Frozen’ … we try to fill requests as best we can,” said Meredith Allen.

Each backpack is then filled with supplies; for younger students, it could be pencils, paper and markers; for older students, the pack could include notebooks, index cards and even flash drives (if the foundation has them).

Once checked off against their lists, the filled backpacks are loaded up and sent to the appropriate agency.

Some supplies go in paper bags — not because the foundation has run short of backpacks, but because some students have said they could use the backpacks given to them last year.

“That really helps … we can give out backpacks to more kids,” said Meredith Allen.

For the members of the foundation, helping less fortunate children get ready for school has been a rewarding experience.

“I think it’s fun,” said Meredith Allen. “I like doing things for other people. I like school, and helping other kids get ready for school.”